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Update on the Student Solution

I wanted to offer an update on what I’ve been doing to address the need blind issue since writing “The Student Solution.” In that blog post, I called for a student task force, “charged with identifying areas for cuts and devising creative ideas for new revenue and costs savings”, with the goal of helping Wesleyan remain as affordable and accessible as possible. Since the blog post, I have taken next steps to make the task force a reality.

I wrote a formal proposal for the Student Budget Sustainability Task Force, where I spelled out the terms and structure of the task force. I submitted the proposal to President Roth’s office on June 18th.

I compiled a preliminary list of unanswered questions related to Wesleyan’s affordability. I sent a first version of this list to the President’s office and got some initial answers on the phone. President Roth agreed to begin considering the full list of questions later this summer. If you have any questions for President Roth about his plan and the surrounding issues, I suggest you e-mail them to me at zmalter@wesleyan.edu or directly to President Roth at mroth@wesleyan.edu.

The first iteration of questions, many which I pulled from other e-mail threads and blog posts comments, can be found here.

I had several conversations with the President’s office and one with the President himself about the task force. President Roth is willing to work with the task force—to meet with the group, share documents, and answer questions—so they can be sufficiently informed and provide meaningful recommendations. He will also ask other administrators to cooperate. As a result, we will be moving forward with the task force, constituting the group within the first three weeks of classes. Stay tuned for more information if you’re at all interested in applying.

According to President Roth, the effects of scaling back need blind will, fortunately, not be felt until March, after regular decision applications are read. I am hopeful then that the task force will present serious recommendations in time to have an impact.

Please e-mail me (zmalter@wesleyan.edu) or the WSA (wsa@wesleyan.edu) if you have any thoughts or suggestions on implementing the task force or more broadly improving Wesleyan’s affordability and accessibility. Given the deep student concern and the significant consequences related to scaling back need blind, I see tackling this issue as my single greatest priority.